Chosen
by dreamandbreathe
Summary: After being gone and unreachable for four years, Gretchen Martin is back to Beacon Hills. While she expected to find everything the way it was when she left, turns out that the town she grew up in isn't as boring as it used to be. Now she'll have to figure out what her old friends are up to and find out that nothing is what it seems in Beacon Hills. Stiles/OC. Rated M just in case.
1. Chapter 1: Return

_A/N: Hey everyone! This is a story I've been thinking about for almost a year now but it wasn't until a month ago when I decided to go ahead and write it. I've done a lot of writing and fanfiction before but this is the first time I actually post it online so I'm kind of nervous, I hope you like it or at least don't hate it. The story starts on Season 2 between episodes 3 and 4, Ice Pick and Abomination, although the first chapter is going to be more like an introduction of the OC. I wanted to start on season 2 because with the arrival of the OC I will not always follow along with the show and I didn't want to change anything from season 1. Like I say on my profile, english is not my mother language so I apologize if there's any mistake. Make sure to review to let me know what you think!_

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A pair of big, deep blue eyes looked outside of the car's window without paying much attention. The owner of those eyes was a small, thin redhead with a face way too childish for being sixteen. Her name was Gretchen Martin, and she never was a fan of traveling. In fact, she hated traveling. It gave her too many hours to think about what was she leaving behind and what was waiting ahead; two things she didn't like to think about. Five years back, when Gretchen, her mom and her little brother moved to another town due to her parent's divorce, she made a plan. She would attend to high school in her new town in North Carolina and she would never have to go back to Beacon Hills again. But being future as unpredictable as it is, her plan didn't turn out exactly as she expected. And now there she was, sitting on the back seat of a cab, waiting hopelessly for her arrival to the town she was raised in.

"I'm bored!" The voice of her brother took the girl out of her thoughts.

"We've been in this cab forever." Max complained, looking at his sister. Despite her bad mood, Gretchen couldn't help but smiling seeing Max's impatience.

"We were on the plane for longer and you didn't seem to care." Gretchen said, running a hand through the ten-year-old boy's hair.

"A plane _flies, _Gretch, a car doesn't. God, sometimes I can't believe you're six years older than me." Max rolled his eyes, as if what he just said was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Alright, smarty pants." Gretchen laughed, shaking her head. "We're almost there."

Her eyes went back to the window, starting to recognize some of the houses of the town they just had stepped in. She pulled a little note out of her pocket and started reading it for the millionth time since she got it. She still had a hard time believing those words her mother had written, they were so vague and so heartbreaking that it almost seemed like someone else had written them. _Some day you will understand, I hope you will be able to forgive me then. Take care of your brother. _But it was definitely her handwriting, she would recognize it anywhere.

She sighted, closing her hand around the note before noticing her brother jump in excitement. The car they were in was now stopped, and a familiar looking house was standing right in front of them. That was it; it was time to face reality. She was back. Max didn't waste his time, he opened the door and started running towards the man who was waiting for them on the house's porch.

"Dad!" He screamed, throwing himself into his father's arms, who held him tight.

"Hey buddy! How was the flight?" Mr. Martin let go of his son's hug and looked at him with a smile on his face.

"They gave us free peanuts and let us watch Despicable Me, it was awesome!" Max was clearly too excited to stand still, so he started to make weird movements with his arms.

"If you're still hungry there are cookies in the kitchen." Gretchen heard her father say while she stepped out of the car and grabbed their suitcases, after having paid the driver.

"Yay, cookies!" Max got quickly inside of the house.

"You only brought two suitcases?" Her dad asked, approaching her.

"Yeah, the rest of our stuff will arriv—oh" She was cut by her dad pulling her into a really, really tight hug.

"George, I can't breathe." She teased.

"Would it kill you calling me dad for once?" He pulled apart and looked at her with a grin on his face.

"You know I like George better." She shrugged.

"Yeah, I know." He took one of Gretchen's suitcases and put his free arm around the redhead's shoulders.

"I missed you." Gretchen looked up and smiled at him.

"I missed you too, baby." George said before kissing the top of his daughter's head. "Now let's get inside before your brother gets a sugar rush."

When they got inside Max had already eaten half of the cookies and had his mouth full of chocolate.

"Maybe you should save some space for dinner, big guy." George said, leaving his son's suitcase on the floor.

"Why? What's for dinner?" Max eyed his dad, wondering if there could be anything better than cookies.

"I believe Melissa is bringing lasagna." George answered making Gretchen frown.

"Melissa? As in Melissa McCall?" She asked.

"Yeah, didn't I mention it? The McCalls are coming over for dinner." George answered, grabbing a cookie.

"George!" Gretchen said in disbelief. It wasn't like she didn't want Scott and her mom to come over, but she was so not ready to deal with everyone yet. She hadn't even been able to think a proper excuse for not having called or written during the last four years.

"What?" George asked.

"Well, we_ just_ got here, literally, like three minutes ago. Don't you think it's a little soon to start socializing?" She tried to talk some sense into his father.

"I figured since you're starting at Beacon Hills High in a couple of days you could use a friend. You like Scott, right?" Her father asked, eating the cookie.

"Yeah, I guess, I don't know! We used to be good friends, yes, but we kind of lost touch when I moved." Gretchen really didn't know if Scott would want to be friends with her again, she wouldn't blame him if he didn't.

"Then this is the perfect occasion to catch up." George said.

"We have school for that." She tried to argue, but she was almost sure it wasn't going to work.

"Come on kid, Melissa told me that Scott was thrilled to know you were back, I'm sure it'll be fun." George was going to win the argument and he knew it.

Gretchen rolled her eyes and sighted. She was sure it was going to be the most awkward dinner she had ever been at. "Fine."

"Maybe we could invite Lydia too." George suggested.

"What? No." She shook her head, releasing a sarcastic laugh. "No, no. Absolutely not."

No. She wasn't going to have dinner with Lydia. She didn't care that she was family, or that they had the same last name, she was probably the meanest girl Gretchen had ever met. They would always argue about anything when they were kids. Literally, anything, even about whether the sky was clear blue or cyan. They were just too different to get along. Her cousin had been through hell in the last couple of weeks, she was aware. Being bitten by some animal, almost bleeding out and running through the woods naked for two days was no picnic, Gretchen was sure about that. She was sorry for Lydia, of course she was, but that didn't mean she wanted to face her sharpen tongue on her first night.

"Cousin Lydia? The one that wears high heels and a lot of perfume?" asked Max.

"Yep, the same." Gretchen nodded.

"I don't like her." He simply said. Gretchen put her hand up and high fived her brother.

"See? It's not just me." She said, looking back at her dad.

"She's your cousin, and you know what she's been through." George said.

"I know, and I will talk to her eventually." Or ever. "But not today, I'm not psychologically ready for that."

George put his hands up in surrender. "Alright, it'll be us and the McCalls then." He looked at his watch. "I gotta go get some groceries, who wants to come with me?" He asked, looking at his son.

"Me!" Max lifted his hands, as if going to the grocery shop was the most amazing thing in the world. He looked at his sister. "Gretch?"

"You two go, I'm gonna start unpacking." Gretchen smiled.

"Okay, to the grocery shop!" George said with a deep voice, reaching out his arm with his fist closed pretending that he was a superhero.

"To the grocery shop!" Max repeated, imitating his father. They both got out of the kitchen and run towards the garage.

Gretchen just watched them leave and smiled at how alike her father and her brother were. It felt really good to be with her dad. Since the divorce she only got to see him when he went to North Carolina to visit, and that didn't happen very often. She never truly understood the reason her parents got divorced. Whenever she asked her mom she got the same answer; _it was necessary_. At first she though, as it was her mom the one that got the children's custody, that her dad had somehow screwed things up. But when they talked it didn't seem like they were divorced at all, Gretchen would actually say that they looked like they were in love. But what did she know about love, right? She had never even had a boyfriend. There had been _guys_, of course, but never an actual boyfriend, no one she could say she was close to love.

She grabbed her suitcase and got out of the kitchen, beginning to slowly walk around the house. It was exactly as she remembered it, same wall paper, same pictures, same furniture. It made her feel like time hadn't pass, like she was still twelve and never left town. She stopped to look at some of the pictures hanging on the living room's wall. Gretchen as a baby, Max as a baby, a smiley George posing with his two children, her mom...She felt a lump on her chest looking at the picture of her mom. She looked so young, so beautiful, so carefree. So not like the kind of woman who would abandon her own children. She closed her eyes for a moment and stepped away, trying to get her mother out of her head. She went upstairs, finding the way to her old bedroom. Except for a sheetless bed and a closet, the room was empty, which made it look incredibly sad. The walls were still covered with the pink and white wallpaper her parents put when she was born. She frowned, almost in disgust. That was way too girly for the sixteen-year-old redhead. She walked towards the window to glance over it and, seeing what was on the other side, she felt her heart beat raise. What she saw was the bedroom of the boy who lived next door, which was in front of her own bedroom. Lucky for her, he didn't seem to be at home on that moment, so he wouldn't see her creeping through the window. His roomed had changed since the last time she saw it. It was no longer a child's room, it was a teenager's room. She could see a lot of pictures and newspaper's articles pinned to the wall, with multiple red strings joining each other, which she found odd. Maybe he was training for being a private investigator some time. She let out a heavy sight, wondering what that boy would say when he saw she was back. He probably hated her now, he had every right to. She shook her head and walked away from the window to start unpacking, she couldn't worry about him in that moment.

...

An hour or so later Gretchen heard her dad and her brother come back from the grocery store. She had already put some sheets on her bed and finished unpacking, so now she was sitting on a chair reading the book she had bought for the plane. Some minutes after her father and brother arrived, she heard a knock on her door. Knowing it was probably her dad, she told him he could come in.

"You busy?" He asked, opening the door without entering the room.

"No, I was just reading." She closed her book and left it on the table.

George nodded and entered the room, closing the door behind him.

"Where's Max?" The redhead girl asked.

"Downstairs, playing some video games." George answered.

He stayed quiet for a moment, before sitting on his daughter's bed.

"So...What's up?" Gretchen asked, wanting to know if her father needed something.

"I just wanted to check on you, seeing if you were ok." George said, looking at her.

Gretchen raised her eyebrows. She knew what he was trying to do, what conversation he wanted to lead them to, and she really wasn't in the mood for that just yet. "I'm fine."

"You sure? I mean, don't you want to talk about it?" George frowned.

"Talk about what? About the fact that my mother abandoned me and my brother? No thanks." Gretchen got up. She was starting to get angry and she couldn't stay still.

"She didn't abandon you, Gretchen, you know that." Her dad argued.

"Really? Where is she then?" She snapped, a little more harshly than she intended.

"It's complicated." George wasn't very comfortable, but he knew he had to have that conversation with his daughter sooner or later. Max was still a child, after all, he was too young to understand what was going on. But Gretchen was different.

"Well, I think it's very simple." Gretchen answered, giving George her back for a second. Her mother left, just like that,there was no other explanation, and she didn't understand how George was capable of defending her. She turned around to look at her father again. "You know George, you really don't have to defend her. After all, she did the same thing to you, right? When you two got divorced, instead of moving to another house she took Max and me and moved to the other side of the country. She abandoned you, and now she did the same thing to Max and I. It's just what she does." She finally let everything she had been thinking for the last couple of days out of her chest, feeling an immediate relief.

George frowned, looking at his daughter with pity. "Does that really sound like your mother?" He asked, trying to talk some sense into her.

Gretchen didn't answer right away, she stayed quiet looking at the floor instead. It really didn't sound like her mother, but it was her the one that left without warning, leaving nothing more than a note. She finally looked back at her father and shrugged. "I guess people change."

George pressed his lips against each other and nodded, deciding to leave it alone for the moment. Maybe it was too soon, maybe Gretchen wasn't ready to open her mind yet, maybe he had to wait to tell her the real story. "I guess you're right." He said, getting up from the bed and approaching the door. "I'm really sorry about everything kid. If you ever feel ready to talk about it, I'm here for you." He opened the door and looked at her with an understanding look.

Gretchen gave him a small smile and nodded. "I know, thanks dad."

George couldn't help but smiling hearing Gretchen calling him dad. After one last look at his redhead daughter he got out of the room closing the door behind him.

...

A couple of hours later Gretchen got out of her room when she heard the doorbell ringing. She assumed it was Melissa and Scott and she couldn't help but feeling anxious, she had no idea of how to act in front of her old friend. She ran into George at the beginning of the stairs and she winked. "Let's get this party started." She said with a sarcastic smile.

"Hey, be nice."George warned as they began to go down the stairs.

"What are you talking about? I'm always nice." She said, with an innocent look on her face. She saw the look her father shot her and sighted. "Alright, I'll be nice."

Before any of them could reach the door, Max opened it, looking up at their guests. "Good evening." He simply said.

Melissa McCall widened her eyes looking at the ten-year-old boy in front of her. "I can't believe my eyes. Is this handsome young man Max Martin?" She asked with a smile, looking down at him. Max nodded. "Do you remember me?" She asked again.

"You're the lady who always gave me candy behind my parent's back." He answered before pointing at Scott. "I remember him too, he had the coolest Scalextric."

Melissa laughed and grabbed a chocolate bar from her bag. "To follow the tradition I'll give you this if you promise to save it for after dinner." She whispered.

Max widened his eyes, with an excitement look all over his face. "Yes, yes, I promise!" Melissa handed him the chocolate bar and he run upstairs smiling in joy.

George shook his head smiling and he approached the door. Melissa smiled at him. "Sorry we're late, George. This little delinquent I have for a son wouldn't answer his phone when he was supposed to be home." She said, looking at Scott.

Scott shrugged. "Sorry, I got caught up at work."

"Don't worry about it." George waved a hand before his face. He grabbed the lasagna Melissa was holding and stepped aside to let them come inside the house. "Nice to see you, Scott."

"Nice to see you too, sir." Scott answered.

It had been a long time since he hadn't seen Mr. Martin. When he was little he spent a lot of time on that house and he and Ms. Martin were almost like his relatives. But since Ms. Martin left town with Gretchen and Max, he didn't have a lot of reasons to go to there anymore. That's why it was weird for him to get inside of that house again. He was excited though, he had missed Gretchen a lot over the last four years. They used to do everything together when they were kids, Gretchen, Stiles and himself. Even though Stiles and Gretchen never got along very well and were always fighting, they somehow found a way to stand each other when they were around Scott, because they knew how important the both of them were for him. When he went through the door the first thing he saw was his mom hugging Gretchen at the bottom of the staircase. The redhead girl looked exactly as she did the last time Scott saw her, only a little older. She still was short for her age, she still had a childish smile and she still had her red hair reaching her shoulders. When she pulled out of his mother's hug she looked at Scott and a huge smile appeared on her face.

Neither one of them said anything, instead of that they walked towards each other and met in a tight hug. "I've missed you so much." Scott said, still hugging his friend.

"Me too." She whispered.

When they pulled back Scott frowned in pain, as Gretchen accidentally touched the wound on his abdomen, which hadn't totally healed yet. She saw the look on his face and got concerned. She had barely touched him but it seemed like she had hurt him. "Are you okay?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, just a little sore from lacrosse practice." He lied, making Gretchen raise her eyebrows.

"You play lacrosse now?" She asked in disbelief. She knew Scott liked sports, but he never had been specially good at them. He always seemed too small and too skinny, although she had to recognize he had grown up pretty decently.

"Co-captain." Scott smiled.

Gretchen raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Oh my God, Scott, that's awesome!" She said while gently rubbing his arm.

George gave the lasagna to Gretchen and asked them to go to the kitchen to warm it while he and Melissa set up the table. The two teenagers did as they were asked and continued catching up while they got everything ready for dinner. Gretchen was surprised by how easy talking to Scott was. It was like those four years they spent without seeing each other never happened, like their friendship was right where they left it, and she was extremely happy about it. He told her everything about how he made first line at the beginning of the school year, how he was later named co-captain and Jackson was not happy about it. He also told her about his first serious girlfriend, a brunette called Allison Argent, who has recently moved from San Francisco. Unfortunately they weren't together anymore, but they remained friends. They spent the whole time they were at the kitchen talking and laughing, and for the first time since she got to Beacon Hills, she was genuinely happy of being back.


	2. Chapter 2: Memories

_A/N: Guess who makes his first appearance here! It takes place on the same night of the first chapter, I'll start following along with the show on the next one. I honestly didn't expect to update this fast. It took me a lot of time to write the first chapter, but I was surprisingly inspired while writing this one. Thank you so much to everyone who read/followed, it really means a lot to have people who like my story. I already have the entire season 2 figured out and I even have a lot of ideas for season 3A and B, so I'm really excited to keep this going. I'll TRY to update the next chapter as fast as I updated this one because I want to be at least half-done with the season before finals but I can't promise anything. I hope you enjoy the chapter and don't forget to let me know what you think!_

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With his short hair still wet from the shower he had just taken and an ice bag pressed against his injured head, Stiles sighed in frustration at the sight of an empty fridge. "Are you serious right now?" He muttered to himself as he closed the fridge. He couldn't believe his luck, he could not believe his freaking luck. After being hit in the head with a piece of his own car by a crazy bitch and waking up inside of a trash can the only thing he wanted to do was to take a shower, have some dinner and head straight to bed. But he couldn't even have that, of course he couldn't have that, that would have completely ruined the pattern of unbelievably bad things he was getting on that crappy day. He removed the ice bag from his head to put it into the sink while resting both of his hands on the countertop. His dad had a night shift at the station, he had absolutely no money, and considering that his Jeep was broken he had no way to get some takeaway. So not only did he have a bump on the head and a completely useless car, but he was also a couple of hours away from dying from starvation.

He absent-mindedly looked through the kitchen's window wondering what to do. He thought about calling Scott and plead him to bring him food, but he was probably too busy dealing with the Derek-turning-teenagers-into-werewolves thingy. He shook his head. Screw it, he had had his ass kicked by Erica while he was trying to help him, he owed him at least some food. He had just grabbed his cellphone and was starting to dial Scott's number when he noticed what looked like Ms. McCall's car parked outside of his next door neighbor's house. Stiles frowned in confusion and put his phone back into his pocket while getting out of the kitchen, and before he couldn't think about what he was doing he had already knocked on the neighbor's door. The door was opened by his neighbor after a couple of seconds. Man, was he tall. Stiles was forced to look up to be able to look at his face instead of his chest.

"Stiles! Long time no see. Come on in." George Martin smiled widely, apparently happy to see him.

"I don't want to bother you. I was actually wondering if I could borrow some eggs." Stiles answered, scratching the back of his neck. He actually wanted to see if Melissa McCall was there. Or Scott. Or both. And why. But he really didn't want to bother Mr. Martin.

"Nonsense, you're staying for dinner." George said, pushing Stiles' shoulder to drag him to the inside.

"It's really not—" Stiles tried to refuse, but was cut by his neighbor.

"Come on, I insist. Scott's here." He finally got Stiles' attention.

"Scott's here?" Stiles raised both of his eyebrows and stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, until he felt his stomach roar angrily. He could definitely use some food, and something smelt delicious in there. He finally looked back at Mr. Martin clapping his hands together. "I guess I could stay for a little."

"Wonderful! They're in the kitchen, you can wait there while we finish setting up the table." Mr. Martin pointed the kitchen before heading to the dining room.

Stiles heard two voices coming from the kitchen, they were talking and laughing. One of the voices was definitely Scott's, that he could tell, but he wasn't able to recognize the second one.

"Hey Sc—" Stiles said as he entered the kitchen, but stopped himself the moment he saw the redhead girl who was talking to Scott. "Oh, wow, Gr-Gretchen?" He didn't know why the hell he asked that, he knew she was Gretchen. She looked exactly the same as she did the last time he saw her, a little bit taller maybe, but not much. Seeing her brought an umpleasant sensation to Stiles, suddenly feeling the rage of all the things he wanted to tell her.

On the other hand, Gretchen froze the moment she saw Stiles walk through the door. She wasn't ready for that, she was so not ready for that. She pressed her lips together and waved awkwardly. "Hi Stiles."

A wave? That's all he was gonna get after being completely stood up and hearing nothing from her in four years? Alright, he definitely couldn't do that in that moment, he needed to get out of that kitchen. "Yeah...Scott, can I talk to you for a minute?"

Scott sent an apologetic look to Gretchen before following Stiles to the hallway. When they were alone and knew Gretchen couldn't hear them he shot an annoyed look to his best friend.

"Dude, you didn't need to be that rude. Gretchen's just—" Stiles put his hand up, cutting what Scott was about to say.

"Forget about her, did you find Boyd?" He needed to change the subject. Besides, there were more important things to worry about than that redhead traitor that was still in the kitchen.

"I did, but it was too late." Unfortunately, he wasn't able to reach Boyd before Derek and he had already been bitten by the time Scott arrived. That didn't stop Derek from kicking his ass, though. Scott suddenly realized the bump on Stiles' head. "What happened to your head?"

"Erica being a werebitch, that's what. She hit me in the head with a piece of my Jeep and then left my unconscious body inside of a trash can. I don't know if she was at that time of the month or if that's her natural behavior now but she owes me like a thousand bucks." He made a pause. "Do you think it's like a pack thing? Like the betas get their alpha's personality through his saliva or something, you know? Derek's an asshole, so all of his betas are assholes." Stiles thought about what he just said for a moment, remembering that the guy who bit Scott was a total psycho. "Forget that I said that, if it was true you'd be a serial killer by now." Stiles chuckled and patted Scott in the stomach, making him to groan in pain.

"Whoa, what's wrong? Are you hurt? Let me see." Stiles demanded, with a concerned look on his face.

"It's fine, it doesn—" Before he could finish the sentence Stiles had already lift his shirt to look at the deep wound that was still on his abdomen.

"Why aren't you healing?" Stiles let go of Scott's shirt and frowned.

"Because it's from an alpha. Deaton said it'll heal, but it'll take longer."

"Did you finally talk to your boss about this?" Stiles raised his eyebrows, surprised.

"Yeah, and believe me, it wasn't pretty. Something killed one of the Argents' hunters."

"Something, what do you mean something?"

"It means that we don't know what it was, but it was probably the creature Allison and I saw on the last full moon."

"Ah, this is bad." Stiles sighed, resting both of his hands on his hips. "So he have the Argents wanting to kill you, a pack of assheads that will probably kill you if you don't join them and a giant lizard that will kill the entire town if we don't stop it."

Scott made an unamused face. "I'm aware of all that, thank you."

Stiles completely ignored him and shoot a look to the kitchen's door. "And we have also that little redhead situation, what the hell is she doing here?"

"She lives with her dad now."

"Does that mean that she's back for good?"

Scott shrugged. "I guess that's what it means, yeah."

"Great, this is just great."

"Why do you hate her that much?"

Before Stiles could answer, Scott's mom called them for dinner. They walked into the dining room to see that Gretchen was already there. Scott sat down next to her while Stiles sat in front of Scott. He felt someone's gaze and looked at his side to see a little boy looking straight at him. Stiles nodded at him, waving with two fingers.

"Hey, I'm Stiles." He introduced himself, unsure if Max would remember him or not.

"I know who you are. You're the next door neighbor Gretchen wouldn't stop talking about when we left town." Max simply said.

"Max!" Gretchen tried to catch his brother attention, suddenly feeling mortified.

"Is that—" Stiles began to ask while raising his eyebrows. He took his eyes out of Max to land them on Gretchen, smirking. "Wow, isn't that funny."

"What?" Gretchen felt her cheeks turn red.

"Yeah, you know, it's funny that you talked _about_ me but didn't even bother talking _to_ me." Stiles started to get heated as he spoke, letting his anger take control of his words.

Gretchen closed her eyes for a second. "Stiles—" She tried to warn him not to start that conversation in that precise moment, but he didn't listen.

"No, no, you know what? It's fine. Because all of these years I thought that you didn't remember me, or that I did something wrong and that was why you didn't tell me you were leaving. But turns out it wasn't my fault, it was just you being an ice-hearted, narcissistic h—"

"Stiles!" Scott cut him shouting his name, stopping him from telling something he would probably regret.

Stiles looked confused for a second, like he had just snapped back into reality. He looked around and saw Scott's mom and Gretchen's dad standing on the door frame and he immediately felt ashamed of himself. "Oh, um...Crap." He got up, running his hands through his face. "Ms. McCall, Mr. Martin, I'm so sorry, I don't know what came at me. I really didn't mean to ruin your dinner. I'll find my way out." He stormed out of the room, nervously scratching the back of his neck. What the hell was he thinking? He did mean to snap at Gretchen, of course he did. He needed to release everything he had been holding against her during the last four years, but that wasn't the place or the moment. He knew Scott would understand, but he didn't know how he would look at Ms. McCall's or Mr. Martin's face ever again.

Scott put both hands on his chair to get up and go after Stiles, but stopped when he felt Gretchen's hand on his forearm.

"I'll go." She said, getting up of her chair. "Excuse me." She passed through her dad and Ms. McCall and went outside, following Stiles, who has heading towards his house.

"Hey!" Gretchen tried to get the boy's attention, but he ignored her. "HEY!" Gretchen shouted, making him finally stop and turn around, giving her the chance to reach him.

"Was that scene really necessary?" She was pissed, the last thing she needed on her first night back was that sort of drama.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I just wanted to make sure I told you what I think in case I blinked and you were gone again." Stiles snapped, taking a step towards her.

"That isn't fair."

"Fair? You want to talk about fair? What wasn't fair was me knocking on your door one morning and finding out you had moved to the other side of the country without even saying goodbye." He finally let that out of his chest.

Gretchen frowned. "Oh, come on, Stiles, don't act like I abandoned you. You know it wasn't my choice."

"Maybe it wasn't, but not writing or calling while you were gone was definitely your choice." He was right. He knew he was right, and he knew she knew he was right.

"Why do you care so much? We were never really friends, remember? The only reason why we managed to stand each other was Scott." Gretchen started to raise her voice. She knew he had the right to be mad at her but, as far as she was concerned, he has overreacting.

"Well excuse me for thinking that after your last night here things would be a little bit different."

"Is that why you're upset? Because of the kiss? We were twelve, Stiles, we were just—" Stiles didn't let her finish.

"Kids? We were not, Gretchen, we were old enough to know what we were doing. We were—well, at least I was, old enough to know that I felt something." That came out of Stiles' mouth unintentionally.

Gretchen didn't say anything, but Stiles could see her facial expression change. She was no longer pissed, she was confused, she looked like she didn't expect that at all. She opened her mouth to say something but Stiles was faster.

"But hey, don't worry." He said as he lifted his hands. "I got over it." He turned on his heels and started to walk towards his house again.

"Stiles!" She called her, trying to make him stop. She didn't want to leave the conversation like that. Stiles briefly turned around.

"You know, if it was that easy for you to stay out of my life for four years maybe you should keep it that way." He simply said, walking away and actually reaching his house this time.

"Fine!" Gretchen yelled before Stiles slammed the door of his house.

_~Flashback~_

_There were too many thoughts buzzing on Gretchen's mind to let her sleep in peace. She was lying on her bed, covered by the sheets, on her pajamas and with the lights switched off, ready to close her eyes and rest until the next day arrived. But she just couldn't. All she could do was staring at the white ceiling of her bedroom and trying to keep her hands from shaking. Even though both her parents' door and her own were closed and their bedrooms were separated by a long hallway, she could still hear the heated argument that was going on between her parents on that moment. She couldn't really understand what they were saying, though, she just heard them yelling at each other. When she felt a lump being formed on her throat and tears fighting to come out of her eyes she knew that she couldn't take it anymore, so she got out of her bed, put a hoodie and her slippers on and sneaked out of the house as quietly as possible. She went straight to the tree house her dad had built on their back yard when she was six. She loved that house, it was small and smelled like wet wood, but it gave her a sort of peace she couldn't really explain. It was her sacred place, where she could get away from the world for a while. Once she was sitting on the edge of the tree house she let the tears slip out of her eyes. She was so focused on her own tears and sobs that she didn't hear someone entering the tree house behind her._

_"Are you okay?" Stiles' voice asked, making her jump a little. She quickly wiped her cheeks without turning her head to look at him, she hated when people saw her cry._

_"What are you doing here?" She asked, still not looking at him._

_"I saw you coming out of your house and climbing up here. I know you only do that when you're upset about something." He sat down next to her without asking for permission._

_"Stalker much?" Gretchen raised her eyebrows, she had no idea of how did Stiles know that. Scott, yes, but Stiles?_

_Stiles chuckled, shaking his head. "Do I have to remind you that I can see your room and your back yard from my window?" _

_"Yeah, that sounds a lot less creepy." She smirked, looking at the boy next to her for the first time since he had arrived._

_Stiles simply smiled but didn't say anything. She was kind of right, it did sound creepy. Although it wasn't like he was spying on her or anything, he just happened to be looking through the window when she sneaked out, it was completely unintentional._

_"So...Are you gonna tell me what happened?" He asked, looking at her._

_"Why do you care?" She snapped, frowning._

_"Okay, you can put you guard down, Gretchen, I came in peace." Stiles put his hands up, trying to show her that he didn't want to fight. He remained silent for a moment, waiting for her to give him an answer, but she didn't say a word, she just relaxed her facial expression and looked down at her lap._

_"Look, I know you and I have never been exactly friends, but we've known each other since we were born, so believe it or not...I care about you, even if it's because of Scott." He made a pause. "If you don't wanna tell me that's fine, but I'm here for you if you need me."_

_"You're literally the last person I would expect to tell me that."_

_"Well, Scott threatened with killing me if I didn't start being nice to you, so..." Stiles joked, making the girl show a genuine smile. That made him feel good. It wasn't something he wasn't used to, making her smile. He usually just annoyed the crap out of her, and he was really good at it._

_"There was actually a time when we were friends. On pre-school, before you became a jerk and started pulling my hair." Gretchen teased, smirking._

_"Yeah, that was from the time when I had a huge crush on you and being annoying was the best thing I could do about it." Stiles let out without thinking, and immediately regretted it. He widened his eyes when he realized what he had just said and took his eyes out of her, looking at his lap instead._

_Gretchen stayed quiet for what seemed like hours, stunned, until she decided that the best thing she could do was changing the subject. "I think my parents are getting a divorce." She finally got those words out of her chest, words she had never said out loud before, not even to Scott._

_Stiles frowned and looked back at her. "Is that why you're upset?"_

_"They yell at each other all the time and they think I can't hear them but I know most of the times they're talking about me." Gretchen felt the lump on her throat starting to form again._

_"You know it's not your fault, right?" Stiles said, seeing that she was starting to get upset._

_"Then why does it feel that way?"_

_"Because we use to think that we're the center of our parent's universe, which is true, but that doesn't mean that everything that happens between them is because of us. Sometimes is just grown up's stuff that we can't understand." He shrugged. They were just twelve, after all, they were too young to understand marriage, let alone the pressure of having a family._

_"Wow, is this the guy who puts straws on his mouth to look like a walrus? When did you become so mature?" Gretchen raised her eyebrows and smiled, impressed. That was so not the Stiles she knew. The Stiles she knew was immature and annoyingly sarcastic, although it was true that he was also incredibly smart. But she had never seen that side of him, and she would never admit it, but she actually liked it._

_"I guess that when your mom gets sick a lot of things change." He scratched the back of his neck._

_"How is she?" Gretchen asked, suddenly feeling like an ass. There she was, complaining about her parents having a stupid fight while Stiles' mother was dying._

_"She has good days and bad days. But eventually there will be all bad days." Stiles felt his voice crack by the end of the sentence. He didn't like to talk about his mom, it made everything feel so real._

_"And how are you?" Stiles chuckled. Was that an actual question? He opened his mouth several times to say that it was okay but he couldn't, because it was really not okay. Gretchen catched that and put her hand on top of his, trying to comfort him._

_"I'm sorry." She truly was. Even though Stiles and her were fighting all the time, she actually cared about him too. He laced their fingers together and gave her hand a little squeeze, in a way of thanking her. They remained silent for a while, just looking at the stars. Gretchen looked at their laced fingers and smiled, she was surprised by how good it felt to be holding Stiles' hand._

_"Stiles?" She looked up at him._

_"Yeah?" _

_"Have you ever kissed a girl?" Gretchen suddenly asked, making Stiles' yaw drop. _

_"W-what?" He blinked repeatedly._

_"Your first kiss. Have you had it yet?" She pressed, looking straight to his eyes._

_"Uh...um, no, n-not yet." He answered, unsure of where she wanted to get with that. "Have you?" Stiles asked, out of curiosity._

_"No."_

_What followed was an awkward silence, where Stiles couldn't stop blinking for some reason. He suddenly stopped, following his instincts and leaning forward, slowly closing the distance between them. He took the fact that she didn't turn her face away as a good sign and he continued to close the distance until he could feel her breath against his. He looked at her eyes briefly, in a way of asking permission for what he was about to do, and he finally pressed his lips against hers in a sweet kiss. Stiles felt a pleasant sensation on his stomach when Gretchen kissed him back, moving her lips slowly against his. It was a short kiss, only lasting a few seconds, but it was enough to make both blush. When Stiles opened his eyes he saw a small smile on Gretchen's face, which made him smile as well._

_~End of flashback~_

Gretchen stood still in the middle of the street for a couple of seconds, staring at Stiles' door. She run a hand trough her hair, trying to shake the memories that didn't seem to want to leave her head and took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm herself before entering into her own house.

"Hey, sorry about—" She stopped what she was going to say when she saw Scott and his mom putting their jackets on. "You're leaving?"

"Yeah, we should have known tonight wasn't the best night for a reunion." Melissa said.

"No, please, don't go because of what happened." Gretchen felt terrible. Even though it was Stiles the one that caused a scene she couldn't shake the feeling that the dinner was ruined because of her.

"It's okay sweetheart, we will have dinner another day." Melissa rubbed her arm, smiling, before shooting a look at Scott and walking through the door.

Scott approached Gretchen and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Gretchen nodded.

"I'll talk to him."

She shook her head. "Please...don't, Scott. Seriously, it's okay."

"You sure?"

Gretchen nodded again.

"See you at school?" He asked.

"Sure." She forced a smile.

Scott squeezed Gretchen's arm lightly before following her mom out of the house. She closed the door and shoot her dad a look, making him see she didn't want to talk about it, at least for the moment. She just went to de dining room and started cleaning, wanting to finish as soon as possible. When they were finished she said goodnight to her dad and brother and went straight to her bedroom. She looked through the window and saw that Stiles' curtains were closed, but she still could see light coming from the inside. Gretchen sighted and closed her own curtains to change to her pajamas, wanting to go to sleep early and forget everything that happened that night.


	3. Chapter 3: Incident

_A/N: I can't believe I'm finally done with this chapter! It feels like I've been writing this forever. So sorry for the slow update, it has been a crazy couple of weeks and between college and family I didn't find time to work on this until some days ago. I'm also not very happy with the outcome, it's more like a filler chapter and I wanted to focus on Lydia, so there's not much going on. The first part is kind of important for some things that will happen later though. On the next chapter Gretchen will interact with the pack a little bit, so hopefully it'll be better than this one. I'll try to update as fast as possible, I don't want to keep you guys waiting as long as you've been waiting for this one. Thank you to the ones that are adding this story and the ones that are still reading. A big and special thanks to **CupCakes24** and the **guests** for reviewing! Enjoy the reading :)_

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Gretchen spent the entire day after the almost-dinner with the McCalls organizing her bedroom. George had decided that Gretchen and Max should take a couple of days off to settle in before starting school, and Gretchen couldn't agree more. She definitely needed some time to adjust to being back to Beacon Hills, and she wasn't going to be able to do that if she jumped right into High School drama the day after she arrived. There had already been enough drama, truth to be told. That little surprise visit from Stiles and the posterior incredibly dramatic fight had been more than enough for the redhead. After the stuff that Gretchen and Max hadn't carry with them on the plane arrived, it didn't take Gretchen a lot of time to organize her room, so by the end of the afternoon she had everything on its place. As she was free while her father had some work to do, he asked her to pick up his car from the mechanic. Ha had dropped the car there a couple of days earlier to get something fixed, Gretchen didn't get what. When she entered she saw that the mechanic was busy working on a grey Toyota, so she went straight to the waiting room. There was a boy on the waiting room, he had brown hair, blue eyes, was around her age and he looked familiar. She walked around the waiting room for a couple of minutes, noticing that the boy wouldn't stop looking at her. When she finally had had enough, she turned around to face him.

"Do you need something?" She asked, trying not to sound too harsh.

"No, sorry. It's just that you look extremely familiar and I can't shake the feeling that I know you from somewhere." He shaked his head and took a step towards her "Do you go to Beacon Hills High?"

"Yeah...I mean not yet, but I will in a couple of days. I just moved from North Carolina." Gretchen explained.

"Well, I don't know anyone from there, so I guess I mistook you with someone else. Sorry to bother you." The boy scratched the back of his neck and started turning away.

"Actually." She stopped him. "I'm not exactly new. I grew up here, I moved to North Carolina four years ago and now I'm back." He looked at her, frowning, like he was waiting for her to give him more information.

"I'm Gretchen." She put a hand on her chest, pointing at herself. "Martin."

"Martin as in.—" He was cut by her.

"As in Lydia Martin's cousin, yes." Gretchen nodded, pursing her lips.

"Right! Yeah, yeah, I remember you, you were the nice one." He let out a little laugh, looking happy for having remembered her. "Maybe you don't remember me, I'm Matt Daehler. We were on the same class back in Elementary School."

"Yeah, Matt, of course! Weren't you the one carrying a camera around taking pictures all the time?" She asked, suddenly remembering.

Matt chuckled. "That's me."

"Nice to see you again then, Matt." She smiled.

"Nice to see you too." Matt made a little pause, unsure of what to say next. "Do you still hang out with McCall and Stilinski?"

"Not really. I've seen them but I just got here and I haven't really had time to hang out with anybody." She explained, shrugging. "Besides, things seem to be a bit different from when I left town."

"They are. McCall is the co-captain of the lacrosse team now."

"So I've heard. Do you play lacrosse?" Gretchen asked out of curiosity.

"I'm on the team, yeah, but I never really get to play. I spend most of the games sitting on the bench with Stilinski." He scratched the back of his neck again.

"Sorry, that sucks." She said, pursing her lips. "It must be frustrating."

"Nah, it's okay. I'm not a sporty one anyway, I prefer taking pictures." He waved a hand, trying to rest importance.

Gretchen nodded and walked around for a little, looking through the window that showed the mechanic working on the grey Toyota.

"Is that your car?" She pointed the car with her head.

"Yeah...Can you believe it? I came here to get the clutch pedal changed and he made a huge deal out of it. Now I'm gonna have to pay like a thousand bucks to that asshole." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. He sounded bitter, like he really, really didn't like the guy.

"Mechanics tend to do that." Gretchen shrugged. It sucked, but it was the truth. She continued walking around, stopping when she saw a picture of the mechanic wearing Beacon Hills High's lacrosse uniform. "Is everybody in this town a lacrosse player?"

"He was probably the Jackson Whittemore of his generation." Matt made a good point. She didn't know how Jackson was now, but if he was anything like he used to be four years ago he probably ruled High School. He was selfish, arrogant and cocky. Gretchen never liked him, and it was pretty mutual. She learned thanks to her mom constantly gossiping with Lydia's mom that she and Jackson started dating a year and a half ago. It didn't surprise her, actually, those two were clearly made for each other.

"So Jackson is still the popular kid, huh?" She asked, not a single pinch of surprise in her voice. "Are him and Lydia still together?"

"No, they broke up like a month ago." Matt made a pause. "I think he has a thing for McCall's ex-girlfriend now."

"Allison."

"Yeah, do you know her?"

"No, Scott told me about her." She explained. "Is she pretty?"

"Very." Matt smiled widely while he nodded. "One of the most beautiful girls in school I would say."

Gretchen nodded and smiled slightly without answering. There was something weird about that guy, she didn't know what it was. He hadn't said or done anything weird but still something about him didn't feel right to Gretchen. She crossed her arms on her chest and continued walking around. A couple of minutes later the mechanic looked in their direction and made a signal communicating that he was done with the grey Toyota.

"Looks like my car is ready." Matt said, walking towards the door. He stopped right before opening it. "Are you going to the game tomorrow?"

"Um...I didn't know there was a game tomorrow." Gretchen chuckled.

"You should come to see the team in action. We're doing pretty well this year."

"Well, I still have a lot of boxes to unpack before I start going to school so I don't think I'll make it."

"That's a shame." Matt pursed his lips. "I guess I'll see you around."

Gretchen waved with to fingers pretty awkwardly. "See ya."

After Matt had left, Gretchen only had to wait ten minutes before her father's car was ready. The bill had already been payed so the mechanic just left the car on the parking outside for her to pick it up. When she opened the door she almost crashed into someone walking in. Surprise, surprise, it was Stiles Stilinski. He looked at her unamused and sighted deeply, as if the mere sight of her face annoyed him.

"God, are you everywhere all of a sudden?" He exaggeratedly rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry, I was just leaving." Gretchen responded, without even trying to be polite.

"Heard you're pretty good at that." Stiles snapped back. Gretchen felt the urge of giving him the middle finger, but she ignored him instead, walking past him and disappearing behind the door. Stiles sighed once again and began walking around, waiting for the mechanic to work on his jeep. He glanced through the window, suddenly seeing him doing something weird on the car. He frowned and opened the door.

"Hey!" He called, being completely ignored. "HEY!" He shouted, trying to get the guy's attention. "Wha—What do you think you're doing? All I needed was a starter." He complained.

"Yeah, but it looks like all your whole exhaust system is gonna need a replace now." The mechanic simply answered, without even looking at him.

Stiles' jaw dropped, looking at the mechanic in disbelief. "Why do I get the feeling you're slightly overestimating the damage?"

"It's probably gonna run you like...12.000 parts and labor." Stiles raised his eyebrows. That had to be some sort of joke.

"Are you kidding!? This thing doesn't even have a catalytic converter! And yes, I know what a catalytic converter is."

"You know what limited subdifferential is?" The mechanic finally stopped working and looked at Stiles.

He opened his mouth, trying to figure out something to say, but he had no idea what that thing was. "...No."

"Yeah it'll be more like 15.000" The mechanic raised the prize before starting to work again.

"Okay just...finish." Stiles sighed, feeling defeated. He started walking towards the door again. "I'll be back here! Seething in rage." He grabbed the doorknob and felt some rubbery transparent substance on his hand. Disgusting. "Ugh...Nice, that's real sanitary. Quality establishment you're running here!"

When he walked into the waiting room he grabbed his phone to text Scott, but something weird was happening to his hands. "What the..." He couldn't move his fingers and his phone fell off his hand as he slowly felt his arms were being entirely paralyzed. He looked up to the mechanic working and suddenly he saw a reptilian hand on the top of his jeep.

"Hey..." He tried to warn the mechanic, but his voice was rough and low. The creature made a cut on the back of the mechanic's neck, paralyzing him and sending him to the floor. "Hey..." It cut something that made the lift slowly go down. The jeep was going to crush the mechanic. "He-ey!" Stiles fell to the ground, his legs no longer being able to support his paralyzed body.

"Help me...help me" The mechanic pleaded for help as Stiles crawled to reach his phone. "Help!" He started to dial 911 but his fingers felt numb and he wasn't able to move them fast enough. "No!" Stiles felt sweat on his forehead as his breath started to go faster. He closed his eyes, not wanting to see what was about to happen. He finally heard a noise, letting him know that the lift had crushed the mechanic. He opened his eyes slowly, still unable to calm his breath. Suddenly the thing appeared in front of him, on the other side of the door, his yellow eyes staring right at his own. Stiles gasped, feeling sick to his stomach looking at the thing's eyes. He felt something weird though, like the thing knew him. As fast as it appeared it disappeared, leaving Stiles all alone.

"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" He heard a woman's voice on the other side of the phone's line. Looks like he had finally been able to dial the number. He took a deep breath and explained that there had been an accident. After some minutes lying in the ground he began to feel the sensibility back to his hands. He began to slowly get up, as he heard the door opening.

"Stiles?" It was Gretchen's voice, and even if she tried she couldn't hide her concern.

"Gretchen, get out." Stiles warned. The thing could still be around and things didn't need to get worse.

"What? No! What's wrong? Are you hurt?" She run to his side and helped him to get on his feet.

"No, I'm fine. What are you doing back here?." He pulled away from her.

"I left my keys here. You say you're fine? Then why were you on the floor?" Gretchen crossed her arms and frowned, not willing to leave it alone.

"God! I tripped and fell, okay? I'm fine! And you need to lea—" He was cut by Gretchen's sudden and loud gasp.

"Oh my God!" Gretchen saw the mechanic and put a hand on her mouth. "Oh my God, is he dead?" She walked towards the door.

Stiles sighed and put himself in front of her, blocking her way. "Gretchen—"

"No! May-maybe he's still alive, maybe we can help him!" She tried to walk past him, but he put his hands on her shoulders, forcing her to look at him.

"Gretchen, he's dead, okay? We can't help him." Gretchen looked briefly to his eyes but quickly pulled away, giving him her back. "I already called 911, my dad is on his way." He explained.

Gretchen continued mouthing "oh my god". She looked up at Stiles. "What happened?"

"I don't know."

"Okay, It's been five minutes since I got out and you've been here the whole time. How could you possibly not know!?" She raised her voice, letting the panic she was feeling take control of her body.

"I..." Stiles scratched the back of his neck."I was..."

"You were what? Blind?" Gretchen snapped.

"Okay, you need to calm down." He put a hand ahead of him.

"Don't you ask me to calm down!" She practically yelled.

"Alright! Keep hyperventilating then, do as you please." He put both of his hands up in surrender, seeing Gretchen taking a deep breath, trying to ease herself.

"Why aren't you freaked out?" She asked, frowning.

"I'm freaked out, I'm insanely freaked out. But someone's got to keep sane on this room."

"You think I'm being insane? I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a freaking dead body on the other side of that door!"

"I'm aware of that! But having a meltdown isn't going to help him so for the love of God, _please_, breathe and keep your mouth shut."

They spent the whole time they were waiting for the police to arrive in silence, without even looking at each other. Gretchen was on one side of the room with her arms crossed on her chest, trying to keep her breath steady, and Stiles was on the other side, looking at her through the corner of his eye. He was pissed, and her sole presence bothered him. Why was she even back? Wasn't she living happily with her mother in North Carolina? He had enough problems dealing with his best friend's werewolfitude and the rest of creepy creatures running around Beacon Hills, the last thing he needed was to babysit a freaked out redhead. And he wasn't going to. Lucky for him, the sound of the police car's sirens arrived to his ears. They went outside when the police and the ambulance arrived. He sat with his dad in the back of the ambulance while Gretchen told her version of the facts to one of the deputies. Stiles came up with a story that matched with what Gretchen had told so that he didn't have to tell his dad what truly happened. But somehow the Sheriff didn't seem to buy what his son was telling. Stiles sighed deeply.

"I told you, I just...I walked in and I saw the jeep on top of the guy. Gretchen walked in right after I called 911. That's all." He explained for the third time, touching his left hand.

"What's wrong with your hand?" His dad asked with a concerned look on his face. Stiles just sighed and shaked it.

"Nothing. Can I just get out of here now?" He asked, annoyed. He didn't want to be there anymore, the scene was way too creepy.

"Look, if there's something you don't think you can tell me..."

Stiles cut his dad. "You think I'm lying?"

"No, of course not!" The Sheriff answered. "I'm just worried about you. If you saw someone do this and you're afraid that maybe they're gonna come back and make sure you don't say anything about it..."

"I didn't see anything. At all." He made a pause and looked at his father. "Can I go now please?"

"Sure. But your jeep...I'm gonna have to impound it" Stiles' jaw dropped. That was great, exactly what he needed after a traumatic experience. "Sorry, kid. Evidence. I'll see you at home."

"Can you at least make sure they wash it?" Stiles lifted his hands, feeling defeated.

"I can give you a ride if you want." He hadn't realized Gretchen was standing next to him until she talked.

He looked up at her briefly before shaking his head. "No. Thank you."

Gretchen sighed. "Come on, Stiles..."

"Just...no, okay? The fact we just shared this incredibly exciting experience doesn't makes us friends all of a sudden." He snapped, looking back at her.

"I wasn't intending to be your friend. You don't have a car and I was just trying to do something nice." She explained, with a surprisingly calm voice.

"Well, I don't need your help."

"And how are you gonna get home?" She simply asked.

"I'll figure it out! I do have actual friends here after all." Stiles looked up at him and he catched a glimpse of hurt on her face. She quickly hid it and looked up at the sky, sighing.

"Whatever." She walked away, leaving Stiles alone. He grabbed his phone and texted Scott, asking him to come get him. In less than five minutes his best friend's mother's car was in front of him.

"You okay?" Scott asked while Stiles got in. Stiles nodded.

"You were right. It's not like you. Its eyes were almost like...reptilian." He made a pause. "But there was something about them."

"What do you mean?"

"You know when you see like a friend in a Halloween mask but all you can actually see are their eyes? You feel like you know him, but you just can't figure out who it is?"

"Are you saying you know who it is?"

"No." He looked at Scott. "But I think he knew me."

...

Lydia had been awake for a while, but she didn't want to get out of bed just yet. She had slept like nine hours that night and still she felt extremely tired, like she hadn't rested at all. The nightmares were getting worse and her parents insisting on her going to see the school counselor wasn't helping. She didn't need anyone to tell her she was going nuts, she was already aware of that. Things were really weird since she almost bled out on the lacrosse field, yes, but she could handle it. She would get over it by herself and by her own ways, like she always had. She was fully covered by her sheets when she heard her mother's knock on the door.

"Time to get up!" Her mom said, walking into the room.

"Go away." Lydia asked.

"You're going to be late to you appointment with the school counselor, remember? We have a deal."

"Remember? I told you I was fine."

"You have to be on time so that you can get out of school early. We're going to uncle George's to visit your cousins Max and Gretchen."

"Ugh. Mom. Really?" As if. She was not going to see her cousin Gretchen. She was lame as hell, and a total bitch if you ask. She always acted like she was better than everyone else, smarter than anyone else. Well, guess what, Lydia did was smarter than anyone else and she didn't need to show off.

"Come on, honey. They just came back and they're family."

"And I couldn't care less. Now could you please get out?"

"Lydia, please." Her mother pulled away her covers and she gasped loudly, seeing they were covered in blood. Lydia opened her eyes and frowned scared, seeing the blood for the first time. She had no idea where that came from.

"What did you do!?" Her mother asked. "Oh my God! What did you do to yourself?" She grabbed her wrists and checked if she had any cuts, but they were actually on her knuckles. Lydia looked at the small mirror on the other side on the room. It was cracked, like somebody had punched it, and had blood in the middle. Her mother followed Lydia's sight.

"Lydia, sweetheart, why did you do that?" Lydia blinked, but didn't answer. "Lydia."

Many minutes later, after they had both calmed down, Lydia got dressed, got her hair and make up perfectly done and put a pair of red globes to hide the wounds in her hands. She was now sitting outside of the counselor's office, next to some guy she had never seen before.

"Nice globes." He said.

"Thank you." She looked at him, smiling.

"So, what's your brand of psychosis?" The boy asked, making Lydia raised her eyebrows.

"Really?"

"We're both here for something, we don't have to be ashamed of it." He shrugged.

"I have an acute phobia of people prying into my personal life. You?" Lydia tilted her head with a fake smile on her lips.

The boy chuckled and looked to his lap for a second before looking back at her. "Compulsively drawn to cute but narcissistic girls." Lydia's smile faded just as the office's door was opened.

"Are you ready The strawberry blond haired shot a last look to the boy before following Miss Morell inside of her office. She curiously looked around, seeing multiple motivational posters. She finally sat down, looking at the counselor, tilting her head.

"You're not even french, are you?" She asked.

"French Canadian." Miss Morell nodded.

"Which means you're Canadian, who speaks french." Lydia pointed out and sighed. "And seeing as I'm placing my mental health in your hands...How about you tell me what as a french teacher qualifies you to be a guidance counselor?"

"I have a master in behavioral psychology and have done over three hundred hours of field work."

Lydia pursed her lips and nodded, pulling out a "I do not need to be here" attitude.

"If you're really fine, what are you doing here?" Miss Morell tilted her head, looking at Lydia.

"I'm pleasing my parents so they don't take my car keys." She simply answered.

"Have you talked to your friends about what happened to you?"

"Yeah, they're great. Totally supportive." Lydia nodded.

"Do you trust them?"

"Implicitly."

"Good. But, still be cautious." Miss Morell looked down to her notes.

"Why? Because some times the people closest to you can be the ones holding you back the most?"

The counselor looked back at Lydia, visibly surprised. "Indeed. Did you read that somewhere?"

"I don't know. Maybe I heard it."

"Well, sounds like whoever said it left an impression."

...

The rest of the day passed by pretty quickly for Lydia. She just attended to her classes, thankfully, without any incidents. She saw Stiles running around the hall a couple of times, looking breathless, but she just ignored him. Trying to understand that boy's behavior was completely useless. She ignored her mom's calls all day. She knew what she wanted and she didn't want to talk to her. She wasn't going to tell her how the talk with Miss Morell went and she definitely wasn't going to her uncle's house.

When the day was done she walked towards the lacrosse field to see the game, but she didn't get to reach the field. Seeing it for the first time since the...incicent, clicked something in her brain and suddenly, all the people around her disappeared. She was now in the middle of the field, alone, on her winter formal's dress and surrounded by extremely bright lights. She turned around, trying to find the person who turned on those lights. "Jackson?" She called, getting no response. "Jackson!" She called again.

"Lydia!" She turned to search the source of the voice and saw Stiles running towards her. "Lydia run!" She frowned in confusion and turned around again, seeing a tall man dressed in all black walking towards her. That is when she started running, trying to get away, but she wasn't fast enough. The man grabbed her ankle, making her fall to the ground. She screamed for help, trying to crawl away from the man's grip, but she couldn't. Suddenly she felt sharp fangs deep in her shoulder and everything turned black.

She came back to reality with a gasp, feeling tears on her eyes. She looked around, seeing lots of people beginning to fill their seats in the stands. She took a deep breath and walked away, getting inside of her car. She was sick of it. The nightmares, the hallucinations, everything. The whole school thought she was the town's nut-job and now she was starting to think it too. She didn't talk about it because she didn't wanted it to be real, she wanted everything to be just a really long dream. Besides, she needed to feel strong, by herself. Without her parents, without Jackson, without Allison, without anyone. But still there were moments when it was too much, when she felt like she couldn't handle it, when she broke down. That's why she didn't come out of her car when she heard the game had started. She wouldn't stop crying, and sure as hell she didn't want everyone to see her cry. Everything was fine, she was crying in peace, being unnoticed, until someone approached her open window.

"Hey, Lydia? What's wrong?" She sighed and closed the window without even looking at Stiles.

"Lydia!" He knocked on her window. "Come on."

"Just go away!"

"Whats wrong?" He pressed.

"Look, I don't need anyone seeing me cry!"

"Oh, come on, Lydia...Look, you shouldn't care if people see you cry, alright? Specially you."

She looked at him for the first time and blinked. "Why?"

"Because I think you look really beautiful when you cry." After Stiles' words Lydia gave up and opened her car's window.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy."

"Lydia, if you trust me on anything you can trust me on this. There is nothing that you can say to me that'll make you sound crazy. Literally, nothing." She sighed, about to start telling him. He suddenly looked to the school's building before looking back at her with an apologetic look. "Can you just give me five minutes?"

She raised her eyebrows in disbelief.

"I know, I'm sorry, just...But you stay here, um...continue crying..." Lydia shook her head hearing his words, looking at the front. "Or not crying, if you want, or whatever you want to do, um...But just stay here and I'll be right back, okay? And then we can talk, about anything, yeah?" She shrugged. "Okay, just five minutes." He made a face, like he hated leaving her there alone, and started running towards the building.

And she waited. Five minutes. Ten minutes. A freaking half hour, and still nothing, Stiles wouldn't show up. She sighed deeply, both hands on the steering wheel, as she checked the hour once again. The match was over and people were leaving, soon there were no cars in the parking except for her own. She had had enough, nobody made Lydia Martin wait that long. She wiped her cheeks, fixing the now ruined makeup, started the car and drove away.


	4. Chapter 4: Back to school

_A/N: Did I just update in less than 48 hours? Oh yes, I did! I don't even know how I did it, but I started writing this morning and I just couldn't stop. Don't expect me to write everything this fast, though, because it probably won't happen haha. I'm really excited about the next chapter because I'll be introducing a new character! I'll post some information about her on tumblr, you can find the link on my profile. I wanna thank **CupCakes24** again for reviewing and the rest of the readers for continuing here with me! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it and don't forget to review!_

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Oh crap. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. That was bad. With his phone still on his hand Stiles began to run down the hallway trying to find Scott. Where was that wolf when he needed him? Things were starting to get out of control and they had to do something. His dad just told him that Jackson went to his office to tell him he did not see Isaac and his father arguing before Mr. Lahey was murdered. That meant that Isaac was no longer a suspect, ergo he didn't need to be a fugitive, ergo he was free, ergo now they had three werewolves under Derek's orders running around High School. What a pain in the ass. When he got to Scott's locker and didn't see him there he figured he would be already on home room. He ran towards the classroom and saw Scott sitting close to the door. He walked, or ran, in way too fast almost falling to the floor when he sat down behind Scott.

"I just talked to my dad who just talked to Jackson and I got really terrible, horrible very very bad news." He said quickly while Scott turned around.

"I think I already know." He pointed to the front and Stiles saw Isaac sitting a row before them. He sighed and left his arms fall on the table, feeling defeated.

Both Scott and him spent the whole hour uneasy, looking at each other, looking at Isaac and praying that Derek wouldn't have something stupid planned that they would have to clean up later. Stiles bounced his leg nervously, watching the minutes tick by painfully slowly, and when the hour was finally over, he jumped from his seat and followed Scott to the hallway.

"Alright, we found one thing online of the Kanima, it's a werejaguar from South America that goes after murderers." Stiles explained as they walked down the hallway.

"That thing was not a jaguar." Scott pointed out.

"Yeah, and I'm not exactly a murderer." Stiles pointed at himself.

"Yeah, but you did see him kill somebody. Which is probably why he tried to kill you. And is still trying to kill you, and it probably won't stop until you're dead." Stiles stopped walking, not believing Scott was saying that. Was that supposed to cheer him up? Because it wasn't working.

"You know, sometimes I really begin to question this "friendship"." He emphasised the word friendship, doing the inverted comas with his fingers as he began to follow Scott again.

"I'm just saying that you should be careful. I can fight the thing but you can't." Scott said.

"I already knew that, Scott, but thanks." Stiles rolled his eyes. Suddenly a thing came to his mind and he put a hand on Scott's chest, stopping him. "What about Gretchen?"

Scott raised his eyebrows. "What about her?"

"He was there too, the night the mechanic was murdered." Stiles recalled.

"But she didn't see anything, right?" Scott asked with a hint of worry on his voice.

"No, but what if the Kanima saw her there and now it's going after her just in case?"

Scott smirked without answering. Stiles frowned. "What?"

"Are you actually worried about Gretchen?" Scott asked, the goofy grin still on his face.

"What?" Stiles asked. "No. Look, I may not like her, but that doesn't mean that I want her to get killed." He explain. God, he couldn't understand how Scott's mind worked sometimes.

"Well, she didn't see anything and she doesn't even know what a Kanima is so I wouldn't worry about that." Stiles nodded and they got into Econ's classroom. They sat down on the fourth row, next to each other, and another thought came to Stiles' mind.

"And what if she is the Kanima?"

"Okay, now you're being crazy. That doesn't make any sense."

"Come on, think about it. She comes back after four years and suddenly people start getting killed. Coincidence? I don't think show."

"She was still in North Carolina when Isaac's father was killed."

Stiles looked at Scott for a couple of saying. "You have a point." He opened his Econ book from the page they were in before looking back at Scott. "When is she coming to school?"

Scott looked at the front of the class, seeing Gretchen walking in. "Right away."

Gretchen stood outside of the Econ classroom for some seconds. She could do it, of course she could do it. It was just High School, what was the worst thing that could happen? Come on, she coul totally do it. She walked one step towards the door. Nope, she couldn't do it. Being the new kid was never easy. But being the kid that has come back? Way worse. She looked at her schedule once again, double checking if that was the right classroom. It was, Economics with Mr. Finstock. She took a deep breath and finally walking in. The teacher, a man with dark hair and light eyes, looked at her frowning.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"Gretchen Martin. I'm new." She explained.

Mr. Finstock nodded. "Well, find yourself a seat."

She did as he asked and looked around, looking for some free seat. She saw Scott, who was sitting next to Stiles, and saw that the seat in front of him was empty. She walked past Stiles, without looking at him, and smiled at Scott before sitting down before him. Stiles looked at her while she walked in and he focused back in hs book.

"Hey, testicle left and right." Stiles rolled his eyes as he heard Jackson. "What the hell is a Kanima?" Stiles' eyes widened and he and Scott turned around at the same time. Before either one of them could say anything Coach slammed a book against the table.

"Alright, listen up. Quick warning before we begin our review. Some of you, like McCall, might wanna start their own study groups because tomorrow's midterm is so profoundly difficult..." He made a pause, chuckling. "I'm not even too sure I could pass it. Okay, I need a volunteer in the board to answer the first question. Who's got it, huh?" A couple of kids raised their hands, volunteering. He pointed at one of the students. "Come on, let's go, buddy."

"Paralyzed from the neck down. Do you have any idea how that feels like?" Jackson asked.

Stiles nodded. "I'm familiar with the sensation."

"Wait..." Scott said. "Why would Derek test you? Why would he think that it's you?"

"How should I know?" Jackson sounded pissed.

"Wait, do they think it's Lydia!?" Stiles asked, alarmed.

"I don't know. All I heard was her name and something about chemistry." He explained.

Gretchen had been hearing Scott, Stiles and Jackson whispering since the class had started. She didn't get what they were talking about, but she did hear the words chemistry, Lydia and...Kanima? What the hell was that? She was so focused trying to figure out what that could be she didn't even notice the teacher was standing right next to her. "JACKSON!" Gretchen jumped at Mr. Finstock's shout.

"There's something you wanna share with the rest of the class?" Gretchen turned around looking at Jackson.

"Um...Just an undying admiration for my Coach." Mr. Finstock, who was apparently lacrosse's coach, smiled.

"That's very kind of you." Jackson smiled back. "Now SHUT UP! SHUT IT!" God, that man was loud. "Anyone else?"

Scott and Stiles started to whisper again, but Gretchen decided to ignore it. There was a test the next day and the best thing she could do was focusing on taking notes. When the student that answered the first question was done, Coach called Lydia to the board. Gretchen looked at her. It had been four years since she had seen her cousin and she looked exactly the same, maybe with a little more of make up. Lydia grabbed the chalk and started writing something weird and it looked like she couldn't breathe well. She had this look on her face like she was in pain as she continued writing faster and faster. Gretchen frowned and looked around, noticing that everyone was now silent, looking at Lydia.

"Lydia?" Coach called. She didn't seem to hear him, she just sobbed, the chalk falling from her hand. "Lydia." He tried again but still no answer. "Lydiaaaa." Suddenly she gasped, looking around in confusion. She started sobbing again as Coach approached her.

"Okay, then." He chuckled. "Anybody else wanna try answering? This time in...english?" Everybody started laughing.

"What is that, greek?" Gretchen heard Scott ask Stiles.

"No, I think it actually is english." Gretchen frowned and looked at them. Stiles was showing Scott something on his phone.

"What? Let me see." She grabbed Stiles' phone before he could argue.

"Wait n—" Stiles sighed. Gretchen observed the photo Stiles had just taken. Lydia had written "Someone help me" backwards. She frowned, looking at the boys, extremely confused, and gave Stiles his phone back just as the bell rang. She quickly got up and followed Lydia down the hallway.

"Lydia!" She tried to catch her attention, and she knew that she had heard her, but Lydia didn't stop. "Hey, Lydia, wait." She run until she reached her position when her cousin suddenly turned around.

"WHAT?" Lydia snapped, making Gretchen take a step back.

"Are you okay? What happened back there?" Gretchen asked, concerned.

"It is none of your business." Lydia turned around, beginning to walk away. Gretchen sighed an followed.

"Hey, I know things haven't exactly been easy between us, but I care about you, okay?" Saying that pained her physically. "We're family afer all."

Lydia laughed, pretty sarcastically, and looked at her. "No, we're not. We may share a last name and hair color, but you and I have nothing to say to each other." Gretchen stopped and watched Lydia walk away, deciding to drop it for the moment. She suddenly heard someone running towards her.

"Hey, I've been looking for you ev—" Gretchen turned around to face Stiles, who blinked in surprise. "Whoa, you're not Lydia." Seriously? He had mistaken her with Lydia? They didn't even look that similar.

"No, I'm not. Glad you noticed." She walked past him and got into the girl's bathroom. There there was a blonde, tall girl in front of the mirror. Gretchen didn't look at her properly until she stood next to her, that's when she recognized her.

"Erica?" She asked, unsure. If she was who she thought she was, she had changed a lot in the past four years. The Erica she knew had messy hair and a lot of acne produced by the meds for her epilepsy. The girl looked at her and nodded with a small, confident smile on her face. Gretchen smiled, suddenly feeling excited.

"I'm Gretchen!" Erica's eyes widened as did her smile.

"Oh my God, Gretch!" Erica hugged her tightly for a moment and then pulled back to look at her. "When did you come back?"

"A couple of days ago. Sorry I didn't call you, I've been incredibly busy." Erica shook her head, letting her know that it was fine.

"Look at you! You look amazing!" Gretchen pointed out.

"I know, right?" Both girls laughed.

"Did they change your meds?" Gretchen asked.

"I actually don't need them anymore." Erica shrugged, still smiling. Gretchen raised her eyebrows and widened her smile.

"That's great! I'm so happy for you." She truly was, she remembered how much her friend suffered with her illness.

"Hey, tonight I have this...Science proyect I have to do, but maybe tomorrow I can see you after school and catch up?" Erica asked.

"Sure, it's a date." Both girls smiled at each other before Gretchen got out of the bathroom, telling Erica that she needed to find her locker before chemistry class. When she got out she saw a tall, blue eyed boy waiting outside of the bathroom, and it didn't take Gretchen much time to recognize him. She had only talked to him a couple of times, actually, as the boy was really shy when they were kids, but she knew perfectly who he was.

"Hello Isaac." She smiled at him as she passed by. She didn't get to see Isaac's confused frown. After leaving her stuff in her locker she headed to the chemistry lab. There wasn't a lot of people there still, so she grabbed a random seat. She soon saw Scott an Stiles walking in and hurrying to seat next to Lydia. She then saw Erica and Isaac standing in the middle of the lab, looking pissed. A tall, brunette girl walked in and sat down next to her, but she didn't even look at her, she was looking to Scott and Stiles.

"Are they always that weird?" Gretchen let out that question accidentally. The girl looked at her for the first time.

"Who, Scott and Stiles?" Gretchen nodded, making the girl let out a little laugh.

"Pretty much, yeah." Gretchen smiled at the girl and took the chemistry book from her bag. "Are you new?" She heard the girl ask her.

"Kind of. I grew up here, moved out and then came back." Gretchen explained.

"I guess I'm still the new girl, then." She said with a smile. "I moved here from San Francisco a couple of months ago." She explained.

"Well, I may have grew up with these people, but trust me, they're like strangers to me." Gretchen chuckled. "I'm Gretchen, by the way."

"Allison." She introduced herself, smiling. Gretchen raised her eyebrows.

"So you're the famous Allison." Allison frowned, tilting her head.

"Yeah...Have you heard about me?" She asked, confused.

"Yeah, no, Scott told me about you. Nothing creepy, I swear." She put her hands up, smiling.

"So you know Scott?"

"Yeah, he was my best friend when we were kids." Gretchen explained.

"What about Stiles?"

"Stiles was just...Stiles." Gretchen chuckled. Allison nodded, as if she knew exactly what she was talking about.

"Einstein once said: two things are infinite, the universe and human's stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe." Gretchen heard the teacher say, as he walked into the class. "I myself have encountered infinite stupidity." Mr. Harris put a hand on Stiles' shoulder as he said that, making Gretchen smile a little. "So, to combat the plague of ignorance in my class, you're going to combine efforts through a round of group experiments. Let's see if two heads are indeed better than one. Or in Mr. Stilinski's case, less than one." He made a pause. "Erica, take the first station, you'll start wit—" Practically every boy in the room raised a hand, volunteering. Gretchen rolled her eyes. "I didn't ask for volunteers. Put your hormonal little hands down. Start with Mr. McCall." Gretchen heard Allison sigh. "Alright, next two, Miss Argent with Miss Martin." Mr. Harris suddenly realized that there were two Martins in the class now. "Lydia Martin." He added. "The other Martin, you go with Mr. Stilinski."

Everyone started changing their seats as Mr. Harris asked. Stiles sat next to her and she just prepared everything they needed, without saying a word. She worked on the experiment while Stiles just looked around. He finally let out a heavy sigh.

"Aren't you gonna say anything?" He asked.

"About what?" She didn't look at him, she just continued working.

"I don't know. You're not gonna explain anything to me like why you left or why are you back?" Gretchen stopped working to look at Stiles. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Let me get this straight. You say you don't want to be my friend, you almost called me a whore in front of my dad and my brother, you ask me to stay out of your life and when I do so you ask for explanations?"

"Well, I..." Stiles started saying something, but Mr. Harris said it was time to change partners. Without saying anything else Gretchen got up and moved to sit next to a random guy. Stiles sighed deeply. Why did he feel like a dick all of a sudden? He knew he was right. Maybe he had been a little harsh, yes, but still he had every reason to be mad at her. He shook his head, he had more important things to worry about in that moment. He looked at his side, seeing Isaac sitting next to him. He opened a bottle of...something and started pretending he was working.

"If you harm one perfect strawberry blond hair on her head I'm gonna turn your little werewolf ass into a fur coat and give it to her as a birthday present." Stiles threatened, earning a grin from Isaac.

"Really? I've never actually been to one of her big, "invite only" birthday parties." He looked at the front. "I did ask her out once, though."

"Sounds like the beginning to a heartfelt story. I'm gonna pass, thanks." He continued grabbing chemicals, without actually knowing what he was doing.

"It was the first day of freshman year." Isaac's eyes were still lost in the front of the class.

"You thought everything was gonna be different for you in High School, but she said no." Stiles made a pout, pretending that he felt sorry for him.

"Yeah, she even laughed. Told me to come back when the bike I rode to school had an engine, not a chain." Isaac finally looked at Stiles.

"Unrequited love's a bitch. Maybe you should write about it in english class, you know, channel all that negative energy." Stiles suggested.

"Nah...I was thinking about channel it by killing her. I'm not very good at writing." Stiles stopped what he was doing to look up at Isaac, with a scared look on his face.

"And maybe, if the test doesn't work..." Isaac turned back to look at Gretchen, who was entirely focused on the experiment. "We should tell Derek to test the other Martin girl. I'm sure the cold blood runs through the family." Stiles blinked and pursed his lips, feeling a sudden and unexplainable rage.

"What did Gretchen even do to you?" He asked.

"Nothing, really. She's just guilty by association, I guess." Isaac shrugged. The time was up and it was time to change partners again. Isaac got up and sat down next to Lydia as Scott sat next to Stiles. Stiles was going to get up but Mr. Harris hit his hand with a stick.

"If you're trying to test my patience, Mr. Stilinski, I guarantee it will be a failing grade." He said as he walked away.

Stiles groaned in anger as he continued staring at Isaac.

"Did you hear what he said?" He asked Scott.

"Yeah, and don't worry, Derek doesn't have any reason to touch Gretchen. He was just trying to get to you." Scott answered.

"Why would he think that threatening Gretchen would bother me?" Stiles frowned, looking at Scott.

"Because you've been staring at her since she walked in this morning." Scott said with a shrug. Stiles' jaw dropped.

"I have not!" He argued. Scott shook his head.

"It doesn't matter, we got more important things to worry about." Stiles nodded, he was right. The bell rang, indicating that the time was up.

"Time!" Mr. Harris said. "If you've catalyzed the reaction correctly you should be now looking at a crystal." Stiles looked at the strange matter he had created. That did not look like a crystal. He looked at Lydia, who was holding her crystal.

"Here's the part I'm sure you'll all enjoy. You can eat it." Stiles looked at his creation once again. He was not gonna eat _that. _He almost dropped his beaker when Scott suddenly jumped.

"LYDIA!" Lydia looked back, frowning.

"What?" She asked, the crystal close to her mouth.

"Nothing." He sat back down, as Lydia ate the crystal and nothing happened. Gretchen looked at the front, frowning. What the hell was wrong with the people in that place? She grabbed her bag when the bell rang and she walked towards the library to spend her free period there, she needed to study for the Econ test if she wanted to pass. When she was already in the library she heard someone call her name. She turned around and saw Matt waving at her. She waved back, smiling, and approached him as he asked her to sit with him and...Danny? She loved Danny. He was best friends with Lydia and Jackson and one of the popular kids, but still, he had always been so nice to her.

"Danny, hi!" Gretchen's smile widened as Danny got up.

"Oh my God, isn't this Gretchen Martin? Come here." Danny pulled her into a hug. "Matt told me you were back. Sit with us, I wanna hear everything about your exciting life in North Carolina."

Gretchen laughed as she sat down next to Matt. "There's nothing to tell, really."

"That's so bizarre." Matt suddenly said.

"What? That there wasn't much to do in a little town in North Carolina?" Gretchen asked, raising her eyebrows.

"No, this." He turned his tablet to show them some pictures. "It seems like my camera is having some sort of meltdown."

"It's a lens flare." Danny pointed out.

"Yeah, but it's only happening on one player." Matt answered.

"Scott." Gretchen said, as she observed the pictures. Suddenly she heard the door opened and Isaac and Erica walked in. They walked straight towards them and Isaac grabbed Matt from his collar, forcing him to get up.

"Whoa, dude, what's the matter with you?" Gretchen asked, standing up.

Isaac completely ignored her. "Where is she?" He asked harshly.

"Who are you, Mickey Cohen? Let go!" She demanded, earning a glare from Erica.

"This isn't about you, Gretchen." She said. Gretchen looked briefly at Erica.

"Your friend is being rude to my friend, so it is about me." He wasn't exactly her friend, but still, he was one of the few people who was being nice to her in that town. She turned back to Isaac. "Let go, please." Isaac finally sighed and let Matt go.

"Where's Lydia?" He asked again.

"She was with Stilinski and Jackson. They were going to study for the Econ test tomorrow." This time it was Danny the one who talked. Isaac and Erica looked at each other and without saying anything else they walked away. Matt swallowed loudly, looking at Gretchen.

"Thanks." He said.

"Any time." The bell that signaled the end of the day rang, so Danny, Matt and Gretchen began picking up their stuff. When they got out of the library Danny said he had to go to the dressing room to get some stuff, so Matt and Gretchen walked down the hallway towards the exit. They suddenly spotted Scott, that was walking past them.

"Hey, McCall!" Matt called. Scott turned around and Matt made a picture of him. "Thanks." Scott nodded and continued walking. Gretchen looked at the picture Matt had just taken and she frowned as she began to follow Scott.

"Scott!" Scott stopped once again to let her reach him. He looked pretty anxious.

"What's up?" He asked, forcing a smile. Gretchen looked at him frowning for a few seconds before answering.

"How about you tell me? Because everyone is acting extremely weird in this school." She crossed her arms. She was actually worried. She knew she hadn't been around long enough to know how that people's normally behaved but everything that happened that day was all levels of crazy.

"Weird?" Scott let out a little nervous laugh. "What do you mean weird?"

"Well, first Lydia has a breakdown in Econ, then Stiles and you spend the whole day wispering...By the way, what the hell is a Kanima?" She tilted her head. That question had been bugging her all day.

"Did you hear us!?" Scott widened his eyes.

"You're not precisely subtle, Scott."

"A Kanima is...A creature from this game Stiles likes to play, you know, the one with all the swords and witches." Scott smiled, hoping that Gretchen would buy what he was saying. She though about it for a few seconds before nodding, and Scott released a breath he didn't realize he was holding.

"Okay, and what about this kid, Isaac. He grabbed Matt by his collar earlier and demanded that we tell us where Lydia was." She explained.

"Did he threaten you?" Scott took a step towards Gretchen, putting a hand on her arm.

"No...not directly at least." She frowned. "What's going on, Scott?"

Scott shook his head. "I guess everyone is stressed out about tomorrow's midterm." He smiled. "Speaking of which, we are doing a study group at my place. Come on, let's go."

"Wait, Sc—" She was cut by Scott.

"No arguments. We have to study, come on." He took her hand and began leading her towards the school parking. Gretchen just sighed and followed him. Several minutes later they were on the back yard of the McCall's.

"Why are we sneaking through the back door?" Gretchen asked.

Scott put a finger on his mouth. "Shhh."

"And why are we whispering?" She whispered.

"Gretchen, just...shh." He opened the door and they walked silently into the house. Gretchen heard some noises coming from the dinning room. Suddenly Stiles appeared crawling. He looked at them and widened his eyes.

"You brought her here!? Are you—" He couldn't finish his sentence because a hand grabbed a hold of his sweatshirt and pulled him backwards, out of Scott's and Gretchen's sight. The red-haired girl gasped and Scott put an arm before her.

"Go upstairs." He demanded as he began walking towards the dinning room.

"Scott—" He began to say.

"Go upstairs! I'll handle it." Gretchen took a deep breath and nodded, walking towards the stairs. At the bottom of the stairs she saw Allison on the floor, trying to get up.

"Are you okay?" Gretchen asked as she helped her.

"Yes, yes, I'm okay. Go upstairs, Lydia and Jackson are in Scott's room." Gretchen nodded again and did as she told her. She was way too scared to start asking questions. She climbed up the stairs fast and she run into Lydia in the hallway.

"What's happening?" Lydia sobbed. Gretchen shook her head, feeling her own tears beginning to form in her eyes. Allison suddenly showed up and told them to hide. Apparently someone was trying to break into the house. They both got quickly into Scott's bedroom and closed the door behind them. Gretchen looked around.

"Weren't you with Jackson?" She asked, seeing there were only the two of them in the room. Lydia turned around and noticed the window open. "Jackson?" She called. They both jumped when they heard another noise coming from downstairs and Gretchen shook her head, they didn't have time to worry about Jackson. He probably saw a chance of escaping through the window and took it. She took Lydia's hand and dragged her into the bathroom, locking the door behind her.

"What's happening?" Lydia repeated, tears filling her cheeks.

"I-I don't know." Gretchen, on her side, was doing everything she could not to start crying in that moment. "We should probably call the police."

Lydia nodded and started dialing the number. After she had talked with the police they remained silent, both trying to catch their breaths and calm down. They jumped each time they heard a noise and prayed that their friends wouldn't get hurt. After several minutes the noises stopped and they could actually hear sirens approaching the house. They got out of the bathroom and started to slowly make their way down. They finally saw the front door wide opened and Scott, Stiles and Allison standing in the porch. Lydia walked towards them angrily.

"Could someone please tell me what the hell is going on!?" She almost yelled.

Gretchen got out right after, crossing her arms on her chest. "Actually, it would be great if you explained it to the both of us."


	5. Author's Note

Hey guys!

First of all, this is not a chapter. I hate it when people do this and I'm sorry for doing it but I really needed to write a quick update. I want to appologize for not having updated yet, it's been a crazy month and I haven't found time or motivation to work on this story. The truth is, as much as it pains me, writing it doesn't make me happy anymore. After posting the fourth chapter I re-read it and realized that I didn't like it that much, it was too rushed and awfully written and I really should have spent more time working on it instead of wanting to be a super-girl updating every two days. I'm not a fast writer, I need to take my time and now that I've realized my mistake I don't know, I just don't have the motivation I had when I started the story. I don't want to keep spending time on something I'm not in love with, that doesn't excite me. That's why I've decided to take a break, at least for now. It would really help me if you could leave a little review to tell me if you would like this story to continue or not. If you're still interested I'll definitely come back after my hiatus but if you're not I'll probably end up deleting the story. If it doesn't make anyone happy anymore what's the point, right?

On a brighter note, I've started working on another story. Also Teen Wolf/OC, but slightly different from Chosen. It is called Wide Awake and at least the first chapters will be based on the facebook game Teen Wolf: The Hunt, I will add some personal changes later. The OC is called Emily Harper and her FC is AnnaSophia Robb. There's not much more I can tell because I only have written a couple of chapters which, by the way, are much longer than any of the Chosen's chapters. I'm not gonna say Wide Awake is way better than Chosen, but what I will say is that it definitely feels better and I'm super excited about it.

I hope you understand my decision and that you give my new story a chance. You'll heae from me soon!


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